


Little White Devil

by Yarniac



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yarniac/pseuds/Yarniac
Summary: “Only you, Merlin. Only you would forget to mention anentire dragon.”
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 195
Collections: The Melee Challenge





	Little White Devil

**Author's Note:**

> Written for week one of the Merlin Fic Book Club server melee challenge  
> my prompt was #5-chest, which I took to mean a chest like a storage box

Arthur has been going through his routine thoughtlessly for most of the day. It’s one of those boring days where nothing important is happening and you need to get through piles of paperwork. Of course, being so mindless and not paying attention meant that when he reached into the chest of gold that lived under his bed, he was quite surprised as he pulled his hand back out and realised he was face to face with a little dragon. 

Arthur froze, wondering if he could get away with just placing the thing back where he found it. The little white dragon stared into his eyes, almost as if it was waiting for Arthur to do something. Except Arthur was still holding onto it, his brain not quite caught up to the situation. 

Then the little dragon let out a loud noise as it sneezed, making Arthur nearly drop it. A big cloud of smoke came out of the dragon’s little snout and Arthur shut his eyes against it. When he opened his eyes again, the dragon just blinked up at him innocently. 

All of a sudden the door banged open as a slightly manic looking Merlin came skidding in. As soon as he spotted the little white devil in Arthur’s hand, he froze in place, wide eyes going from Arthur’s soot covered face to the mischievous little dragon and back. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again, seeming not to be able to come up with a good explanation this time.

Before Arthur had time to blink, let alone ask Merlin what the hell was going on, the little creature was out of his hand and zooming across the room until it knocked Merlin to the ground. Arthur blinked at his empty hand, still processing what just happened and then he looked to Merlin, who was flat on his back with the little dragon curled up and quite loudly making some kind of purring noise right atop Merlin’s chest.

“Erm…” Merlin started.

“Don’t bother,” Arthur said raising his hand out in front of him, “I don't want to know.”

As Merlin slowly got up, the little dragon, seeming put out that it’s bed was moving, quickly uncurled itself and scrambled up so that it was sat on Merlin’s shoulder. It wobbled back and forth slightly any time Merlin moved, trying to keep its balance on its perch.

As Arthur sat back down at his desk, apparently planning to continue doing paperwork like nothing had happened, Merlin approached slowly. He came up to the table and looked at Arthur, biting his lip as if to hold in a laugh but Arthur didn’t miss the slight wrinkle of worry in his brows..

“Um, you’ve got-” Merlin let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, “you’ve got erm, a bit of, uh, soot. On your nose.” Merlin was definitely trying not to laugh now.

Arthur’s eyes crossed as he tried to look at his own nose and Merlin stopped trying to hold in his laughter, letting out a loud snort. Arthur turned to glare at him, though the corner of his mouth was betraying him as he fought not to smile.

Arthur rolled his eyes and let out a long-suffering sigh.

“I thought there was only one dragon left,” Arthur began, “you _told_ me that there was only one dragon left.” Arthur looked at Merlin with far too much accusation than Merlin was comfortable with.

“...Surprise?”

“Only you, Merlin,” he studied Merlin’s sheepish face, “only you would forget to mention an _entire dragon_.”

“Hey! In my defence, she’s only tiny.”

“She’s only… Merlin, she’s a dragon! I rather think that would mean you’d remember to mention her at least once!” 

Merlin gave an uncomfortable shrug, letting a nervous half-giggle slip from his lips. He really hoped Arthur wouldn’t be too offended. He’d accepted the rest of it fairly well… or… well, it had taken some time and a lot of emotions, but he got there in the end. Merlin looked back up. Arthur was doing that thing again where he studied Merlin’s face as if he was deciphering the words of a particularly convoluted poem, and Merlin was certain that Arthur could see the real worry that was lingering in Merlin’s thoughts.

Arthur rolled his eyes again, pointedly, then looked into Merlin’s eyes. It looked like he was going to say something, but then he just… didn’t. Merlin looked into the deep captivating blue of Arthur’s eyes and began to almost forget where he was.

He was snapped back into reality by a small dragon-like screech as Aithusa leapt off of his shoulder, aiming for Arthur. She wasn’t very good at flying or gliding yet, and had slightly misjudged the distance, landing for a second on top of Arthur’s head and then tumbling off.

Thanks to Arthur’s quick reflexes, he managed to turn and catch her before she hit the ground. Merlin let out a small breath. He knew she would have been fine if she really had fallen to the floor, strong dragon hide and all, but he couldn’t help worrying like a mother hen whenever Aithusa played rough.

Merlin quickly made his way over, ready to take Aithusa back from Arthur, but Aithusa seemed to have nestled quite comfortably into Arthur’s arms and the king himself didn’t seem to want to let her go any time soon. He was looking at her and she snuggled closer as if she was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. Which was fair, since she probably was. You wouldn’t think that a scary lizard could be so cute, but that’s little Aithusa for you.

“What’s her name,” Arthur asked, “assuming she has a name?”

“Aithusa,” Merlin replied, he wasn’t quite sure what his heart was doing in his chest at the sight of Arthur holding what he considered to basically be his child in his arms, but he didn’t know if he could survive the adorable sight much longer.

“Do you… uh… want to give her back? ...or?” Arthur looked up, expression falling the tiniest bit. 

“Do I have to?” He coughed, “I mean, she seems to be quite comfortable, and I’m sure a growing dragonling like her needs all the care she can get. Right?” Merlin laughed.

“You can keep holding her if you’d like, I just thought maybe you’d like to get rid of her to do some kingly paperwork or something.”

“No, no… I think I’m quite done for the day.” Arthur was now scratching under little Aithusa’s chin, making the dragon lean into it and purr loudly. 

“Right.” It looked like Arthur was quite taken with the little dragon in his arms. Then again Merlin always did think that fatherhood would quite suit him. As always when he thought about Arthur and fatherhood, he imagined little Arthurs and Merlins running around, climbing onto the king's shoulders and dragging him along to play their games.

“What are you smiling about?” Arthur asked suspiciously, still giving Aithusa little scratches.

“Nothing.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always, apologies for this being not very well written  
> I will admit, not as much effort went into the editing of this than should have  
> leave me alone, I'm tired xD


End file.
